BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Economists have said customers are spending already. Stores brought in employees, and expanded their evening hours on Thursday night. Baton Rouge shoppers responded.
Toys R Us and Walmart opened at 8 p.m.
The line outside of Toys R Us kept getting longer. These weren't your everyday shoppers. Steve Guidry was the first person in line.
"I got here at 9 a.m. to study," Guidry said.
He was studying the advertisements, of course. These folks knew exactly what they were going after well before the store opened.
"We're going to get the Samsung Galaxy, a couple of scooters," Guidry said.
"I'm looking for the Huffy Green Machine, Power Wheels," Marlo Martin said.
Almost everyone had a plan.
"I went a few years ago but this is actually my first time with a mission. Our mission is to get MobiGoes for my nieces and nephews," Sarah Comeaux said.
Then there were the late comers who showed up only three hours early not expecting to find the line wrapped around the building.
"I was like wow, obviously we didn't plan enough ahead of time," Rodney Guidry said.
"It's deceiving because when you pull up you really don't see the back of the line. But when I got to the back I thought oh my God," Sundie Martin said.
There is something to be said about having a strategy. Marlo Martin was pregnant, due any minute, and she brought back up.
"You plan in advance and you have a good team to work with and once you go in you designate spots for each person to go and you have a meeting point where your basket is where you drop your toys off," Martin said.
The first 200 people through the doors of Toys R Us walked away with $30 in free toys.
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